E 
E8fa 

1879 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

T 

c^-«/j..-£.-5-?.& 



UNITEb STATES OF AMERICA. 




OEATION 



DEIilVERED BEFORE THE 



itl^ inuntll nnb SiHpita uf ^oslnu, 



ON THE 



ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLA- 
RATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 



JULY 4, 1879. 



BY 



y 



HENEY CABOT LODGE, is^o^- 




Ji s 1 n : 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

M D C C C L X X I X . 



7/ 



•V 






CITY OF BOSTON. 



In BoxVrd of Aldermen, July 7, 1879. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be tendered 
to Henky Cabot Lodge, Esq., for his truly American and 
statesmanlike Oration of July Fourth, and that he be re- 
quested .to furnish the City Council with a copy for pub- 
lication. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. 

HUGH O'BKIEN, Chairman. 



In Common Council, July 10, 1879. 
Passed in concurrence. 

WILLIAM H. WHITMORE. 



Approved July 11, 1879. 

FREDERICK O. PRINCE, Maijor 



ORDER OF EXERCISES 



BOSTON THEATRE, 



JULY 4, 1879 



HIS HONOR MAYOR PRINCE, Presiding. 

1. Music by GERMANIA BAND. 

2. Prayer by. Rev. JOSHUA P. BODFISH. 

3. Music. 

4. Reading of the Declaration of Independence, 

BY Master ANDREW CHAMBERLAIN. 

5. Oration by HENRY CABOT LODGE, Esq. 

G. Benediction. 

7. Music. 




The official observance of the Fourth of July took place 
in the Boston Theatre at ten o'clock. 

After an overture by the Germania Band the following 
prayer was offered by the Rev. Joshtja P. Bodfish, of the 
Roman Catholic Cathedral : — 



"O ETERNAL Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
Creator of all things visible and invisible, Source 
of all our good; infinitely good in Thyself, and in- 
finitely gracious, bountiful, and good to us; behold 
we, Thy poor servants, the w^ork of Thy hands, 
redeemed by the blood of Thine only Son, come to 
present ourselves, as humble petitioners, before the 
throne of Thy mercy. 

" We pray Thee, O Almighty and Eternal God ! 
who, through Jesus Christ, hast revealed Thy glory 
to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, 
that Thy Church, being spread through the whole 



8 ' EXERCISES. 

world, may continue, with unchanging faith, in the 
confession of Thy name. 

"We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom, and 
justice ! through whom authority is rightly admin- 
istered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, 
assist, with Thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude, 
the President of these United States; that his ad- 
ministration may be conducted in righteousness, and 
be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he 
presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and 
religion; by a faithful execution of the laws injustice 
and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. 
Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the de- 
liberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the 
proceedings and laws framed for our rule and govern- 
ment, so that they may tend to the preservation of 
peace, the promotion of national happiness, the in- 
crease of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge, and 
may perpetuate to us the blessings of equal liberty. 

" We pray for His Excellency, the Governor of 
this State, for the Members of Assembly, for His 
Honor the Mayor, and Members of our City Govern- 
ment, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers 
who are appointed to guard our political welfare; 
that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protec- 
tion, to discharge the duties of their respective 
stations with honesty and ability. 

" We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded 
mercy, all our brethren and fellow-citizens through- 
out the United States, that they may be blessed in 
the knowledge, and sanctified in the observance, of 



JULY 4, 1879. 9 

Thy most holy law ; that they may be preserved in 
union, and in that peace which the world cannot 
give; and, after enjoying the blessings of this life, be 
admitted to those which are eternal. 

" O Father of lights, and God of all truth, purge 
the whole world from all errors, abuses, corruptions, 
and vices. Beat down the standard of Satan and 
set up everywhere the standard of Christ. Abolish 
the reign of sin, and establish the kingdom of grace 
in all hearts. Let humility triumph over pride and 
ambition ; charity over hatred, envy, and malice; 
purity and temperance over lust and excess; meek- 
ness over passion; and disinterestedness and poverty 
of spirit over covetousness and the love of this per- 
ishable world. Let 'the gospel of Christ, both in its 
belief and practice, prevail throughout the world. 

" Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by 
Thy inspirations, and further them with Thy con- 
tinual help; that every prayer and work of ours may 
always begin from Thee, and through Thee be like- 
wise ended. 

"O God, from whom all holy desires, ail right 
counsels, and all just works do proceed, give unto 
Thy servants that peace which the world cannot 
give ; that both our hearts being- devoted to the 
keeping of Thy commandments, and the fear of ene- 
mies being taken away, we may pass our time, by Thy 
protection, peacefully, through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, 
our Lord, who livest and reignest with Thee, in the 
unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. 
Amen." 



10 EXERCISES. 

The Declaration of Independence was then read by Master 
Andrew Chamberlain, a medal scholar from the L;ttin 
School. 

Mayor Prince then arose and introduced the orator, 
Henry Cabot Lodge, Esq., in the following words; — 

" The disposition to commemorate the anniversary 
of any event affecting the fortunes of individuals or 
nations is a natural sentiment of the heart. When, 
therefore, we consider the importance of the Declara- 
tion of American Independence, and the vast con- 
sequences which flowed therefrom; when we fully 
realize the immense influence which the political 
ti'uths therein set forth have exerted upon the great 
subject of government, upon many social institutions, 
and upon much of human thought and action, the 
American people, as John Adams declared, should 
regard the Fourth of July as a ^ glorious and im- 
mortal day, to be commemorated by solemn acts of 
devotion to Almighty God, and solemnized with 
pomp and parade, with shows, games, bonfires, and 
illuminations from one end of the continent to the 
other for evermore.' The freedom-loving Anglo- 
Saxon race does not indeed require these ceremonial 
observances to keep alive the vestal flame of liberty, 
as the Spartans did not need the stimulus of martial 
music to arouse their valor and excite the ^ sweet 
madness of battle;' for it knows well the value of 
political rights and the blessings of civil and religious 
freedom, and how they are best defended and pre- 
served. It is fitting, however, that eloquence and 
oratory should rehearse from year to year what our 



JULY 4, 18 719. 11 

fathers did and what they suffered for the cause, 
that we may the better appreciate the gratitude we 
owe them, and that our young men, as they come 
forward in hfe, may by such recitals recognize their 
political responsibilities and duties, and feel their 
obligation to transmit unimpaired to future genera- 
tions the free institutions inherited from the signers 
of the Declaration and those they represented. It 
is especially fitting that the City of Boston should 
commemorate this day, for here was the chief 
nursery of the patriotic sentiments which led to 
resistance to British tyranny; here the Revolution 
was organized; here Washington assumed command 
of the army which achieved what the Declaration 
asserted; here was spilled the first blood in the holy 
cause; and here in this neighborhood lie buried the 
martyrs of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. 
From our earliest post-revolutionary annals, there- 
fore, our citizens have assembled on the Fourth of 
July to honor its memories. Distant be the day 
when the anniversary shall fail to awaken in the 
hearts of our people those patriotic sentiments and 
expressions which belong to the occasion. Our 
fathers pledged their lives, their honor, and all they 
held dear, to liberty and the republic. They per- 
formed noble deeds and made great sacrifices for the 
cause. If we of this generation are not called to 
imitate their action, we can at least commend their 
patriotic conduct, and express our gratitude for the 
benefits we derive therefrom. Pulclirmn est hene 
facere reipublicce, etiam hene dicere liaud ahsurdum 



12 EXERCISES. 

est. You will hear to-day our orator. The patriotic 
blood inherited from patriotic ancestors will inspire 
his discourse. I present and ask your attention to 
Henry Cabot Lodge." 



ORATION. 



We meet to-day to commemorate, with customs 
honored in the observance, our national birthday. In 
this matter of birthdays nations resemble indi- 
viduals. The recurring anniversary is hailed in 
childhood with rejoicing and pleasure. It marks a 
period of rapid advance, and denotes another step 
towards manhood, and all its fancied independence. 
In due time the youth comes of age. Technically and 
legally, at least, the period of tutelage and immaturity 
isat an end. But with the acquisition of freedom a 
gradual change begins. Few persons go so far as 
Dean Swift, who passed his birthday in solitude, 
as a day of mourning, fasting, and prayer. Yet, to 
almost every one, I think, as he goes on in life, the 
birthday suggests more and more serious reflection. 
Gradually we turn our eyes, when the day arrives 
which closes each little cycle of our existence, from 
the future to the past. We strive more and more 
earnestly to draw from the departed years lessons 
which shall guide our footsteps upon the unknown 



14 OR A T ION. 

pathway before us. If this be rightly clone, it is at 
this period, when we have both a future and a past, 
that we achieve success. 

So it is with nations. By the signatures of the 
Declaration of Independence we came into existence. 
By the signatures of the treaty of Paris, that exist- 
ence was acknowledged in Europe. By the adoption 
of the Constitution, nationality, then only a possi- 
bility, became a probability, which, after many years, 
has ripened into certainty. Then came our boyhood, 
and the struggle to cast aside the colonial spirit, and 
shake ourselves free from the influence of older and 
stronger nations. This was a longer and more ardu- 
ous process than we can readily realize now. If the 
world had been at peace, our task, wonderfully diffi- 
cult under any circumstances, would have been some- 
what simplified; but everything seemed to combine 
against us. 

Civilized mankind was in the throes of the French 
revolution. Through the first period of that awful 
convulsion Washington and Hamilton and Adams 
steered us successfully into the haven ofi'ered by the 
peace of Amiens. There was a short lull, and then 
the tempest raged again more violently than before. 
The old pilots were gone, and there was no one who 
could fill their places in such stress and peril. We 
were the only important neutral nation in the world, 



JULY 4, 1879. 15 

and our rich and defenceless commerce was an invit- 
ing prey. We broke, from our moorings, and drifted 
out upon the stormy seas of the Napoleonic wars, 
assailed by all, befriended by none. It was painfully 
evident then that we were still children, and still in 
tutelage, intellectually, if not physically. To our 
shame be it said, both political parties made it their 
principal business for ten years to accuse each other 
of foreign predilections. We displayed at every 
turn the violent anger and infirmity of purpose 
which characterize the headstrong and impetuous 
boy, whose powers are yet untried, and who lets " I 
dare not wait upon I would." It was a sorry time. 

But the previous years of peace and union had 
not been useless. After sore humiliation and bitter 
insult had been tamely borne by the country a 
national party at last came into existence. They 
pushed aside the old leaders and the old provincial 
feelings, and resolved to fight. They acted blindly, 
hotly, and, in many ways, unwisely. They were not 
Washingtons, and could not imitate his policy. But 
they took the methods of the Federalists and the 
theories of the Democrats, and determined to assert 
their nationality by arms. In so doing they hurried 
the country into a desperate and losing war. They 
brought the Union to the verge of dissolution. 
They abandoned by treaty everything which they 



16 O 1? A T I O N . 

had sought to obtam by force. But they viudicated 
the national existence, they proved the fighting 
qualities of the race to be as fine as ever on sea, 
and at last on land, and they broke once for all the 
fetters of colonial thought and tradition. They did 
their work roughly and ignorantly, but they were 
right at bottom, and by the treaty of Ghent we came 
of age. 

Then followed a period of wild exuberance and 
exultant hopes. By the almost magic growth of 
material prosperity, by the rapid sj)read of civiliza- 
tion, and by the new-born consciousness of nation- 
ality, men's minds were filled with visions of a 
political millennium. We became imbued with the 
belief that we had a great mission. All humanity 
was to come as to the promised land, and be re- 
lieved. The fertile imagination of Henry Clay 
devised the scheme of uniting all American States. 
This human freedom league, controlling the western 
hemisphere, was to resist the Holy Alliance of em- 
perors and kings, and bring in the new world to 
redress the balance of the old. Doubts as to our 
system, or as to the perfection of humanity, when 
freed from oppressive government, were regarded 
as heresy. We were to reorganize society, and 
change the destiny of man. In our vanity, our 
self-confidence, our unwillingness to learn or to 



JULY 4, 18 79. 17 



recognize and correct our faults, above all, in our 
morbid sensitiveness to ridicule, we showed only 
too clearly our youth and inexperience. 

But, while we were rejoicing and looking forward 
to the beneficent and enchanted future, where our 
dreams were to become realities, a dark cloud was 
gathering over the prospect. Gradually it became 
evident that two distinct social systems had grown 
up within our borders, which were so wholly irrecon- 
cilable that even this broad land could not afford 
room for both. One must perish that the other 
might survive. With every advancing year the im- 
mutable laws of economy and . industry widened and 
deepened the gulf between the opposing systems, 
and strengthened one side while they weakened the 
other. Free labor was stifled in an atmosphere 
where slaves breathed, and free labor held in its 
hands the destiny of the republic. 

There might have been a time when this awful 
problem could have received a peaceable sohition; 
but, when men were at last awakened to the facts, 
and prepared to deal with them, it was too late. 
Beneath the baneful influence of the slavery struggle, 
politics and public men degenerated, and the old 
statesmanship of the republic withered away. Great 
leaders, in Congress and elsewhere, cried, "Peace, 
peace;" but there was no peace. Our social problem 



18 ORATION. 

was a Gordian knot. We followed the example of 
Alexander, and untied it with the sword. 

The greatest war of modern times, since ^Napoleon 
fled from the field at Waterloo, and all the far-i*eaeh- 
ing results of such a war, have made sad work with 
our illusions. They are gone, like our extreme youth, 
and we begin to turn our look backward for instruc- 
tion as to the journey which once seemed so easy 
and so full of promise. AYe have reached the second 
stage in our national birthdays. The time for reflec- 
tion has come. If we can profit by the teaching of 
the past, although the future no longer looks either 
so golden or so certain as of yore, we may still find 
in it a greater, better, and truer success even than 
that which once filled our youthful imaginings. On 
this day of the jeav it especially behooves us to make 
up our accounts and see how we «tand. We may 
well pause for a moment in our hurried, nervous, 
busy life to contemplate the jears Avhich have gone, 
and see what we have done with them. We are 
growing old, old enough to have a history, old 
enough to study it carefally. Let us take, then, 

That great, wise book, as beseemeth age. 
While the shutters flap as the crosswind blows. 

And we turn the page, and we turn the page. 
Not verse, now, only prose. 

We are in the very prime of life as a nation. We 



JULY 4, 1879. 19 

are still young, still growing, still plastic and able to 
learn. But we have also passed the period of 
immaturity; we are vigorous, powerful, .rich, and 
masters of a continent. We have made for ourselves 
a history, and we have our heroes and our heroic 
age, — an age full of human passion and human error, 
but great by its struggles and its conquest of 
difficulties. 

We are wont to revert to the war for independence 
as our most glorious time. So, in some respects, it 
was. But the Declaration of Independence is eclipsed 
by the adoption of the Constitution and the organiza- 
tion of the government. It is better to create than 
to destroy. If we had fought the Revolution merely 
to obtain the wretched Confederation, and then dis- 
solve into petty and jarring States, it would have 
been more honorable to have remained an integral 
part of the great empire of England. But this was 
not to be. We proved ourselves worthy of our in- 
heritance, and capable of the moderation, temper- 
ance, and foresight which resulted in the Constitu- 
tion. With the inauguration of Washington our 
national existence became a fact, and to the history 
of our career from that time to this we must look for 
guidance and instruction. 

Although history, as a science, is still in its infancy, 
we have gone far enough to perceive a few great 



20 O K A I' I N . 

laws of human development, and from these, as they 
are the greatest and simplest, we learn the most. In 
onr own history we can easily detect the governing 
forces which have shaped our destiny, and struggled 
for victory. Two great conflicts of opposing princi- 
ples have gone on here side by side. ]V^ationality and 
separatism, aristocracy and democracy, are the con- 
tending forces which have made the political history 
of the country, and been felt throughout society and 
all its manifold forms of activity. All these forces 
existed in the States of the Confederation. They were 
present at the debates on the Constitution, and, fron^, 
the foundation of the government, they have battled 
for the great prize of. its possession and adminis- 
tration. 

In the old system of the Confederation the separa- 
tist principle was supreme. Every State looked out 
for its own immediate interest with selfish and short- 
sighted ingenuity. The general government was 
despised and rejected. Anarchy seemed at hand. 
By a grand effort the wisest and most patriotic 
men framed and carried the Constitution. They 
succeeded; by means of judicious compromises, in 
" extorting from the grinding necessity of a reluctant 
people " a bare assent to the new scheme. Whatever 
glosses may now be put upon the Constitution, and 
upon the debates which preceded it, there can be no 



JULY 4, 18 79. 21 

doubt that it was reo'arded at the time not only as an 
experiment, but as an agreement. ]!*^ationality had 
but a feeble life in 1789, when the first Congress met 
in New York. There is no need to dwell upon the 
growth of the national principle embodied in the Con- 
stitution, or the phases of the conflict which ensued 
between that principle and the older one of State 
sovereignty. They, at last, contended for dominion 
sword in hand, and the events which led to four years 
of civil war are as familiar as a twice-told tale. 

Every one knows that, with each advance of the 
national power, the separatist spirit started up with 
fiercer menace and contested the ground. Some- 
times the State prevailed, and sometimes the nation. 
Finally the rights of States were appropriated to 
the service of slavery, which gathered to itself every 
interest and every passion almost of which human 
nature is capable. At last slavery drew the sword 
of State rights and struck at the national existence. 
Then it was seen that the Constitution had silently 
done its work. The puny infant of 1789 had become 
a giant. When the bit of bunting which typified 
national existence was assailed the national spirit 
burst forth. Men were ready to bear with slavery 
and with all else, but there was one thing they 
would not part with, — their nation. The strong 
instinct of nationality started up and filled the hearts 



22 o R A r I o N . 

and minds of men. Like other instincts it found no 
exact expression ; it gave rise to no formula, but the 
strength of the people was in it, and was resolved 
that the Empu*e of the West should remain intact. 
All else might perish — that should not. Whether 
for good or ill, the nation should remain united, the 
empire should not be shattered into jarring and dis- 
cordant States. In this spirit the battle was fought 
and victory gained. Whatever else might come to 
pass, the Union under one flag was assured so far as 
human exertion and human sacrifice can assure any- 
thing. 

So much of the long struggle is over. That we 
are a nation, and not a confederacy, has been decided 
by the dread arbitrament of the sword. We may 
again have civil war, — which God forbid ! — but we 
shall not fight for our national existence. If we do 
fight, it will be for the possession of the national 
government, not for its overthrow. The national 
force, social and political, is supreme. 

The history of the great conflict is familiar, but 
it is well to call it to mind and dwell upon its results 
and lessons. We owe our existence as a nation to 
the Constitution, and to its silent work during three- 
quarters of a century. Our first feeling ought to 
be one of gratitude to that great instrument, and to 
the men who framed it. Such gratitude, however, 



JULY 4, 1879. 23 

can be expressed only by reverence for its provisions 
and scrupulous observance of its limitations. Herein 
lie the merit and value of a written constitution, if 
it has any, and \tho can doubt this when its work 
is considered? Formed by wisdom and patriotism, 
the Constitution rises up over the warring passions 
of party, to check and to control. There is the rule 
of action for the majority; there, and there alone, 
can the rights of the minority find shelter and pro- 
tection. 

The Constitution, if we heed its provisions, gives 
time for cool second thought, and, as nearly as pos- 
sible, personifies reason and law, staying the action 
of excited force. The man or the party who violates 
it endangers our liberties. They are the enemies of 
the national charter. The greater the majority which 
overrides its provisions, the greater and the more 
unpardonable the sin, for the Constitution has within 
itself means to remedy legally and deliberately its 
own shortcomings. 

Foreign critics have sometimes found fault with 
our excessive reverence for the Constitution. We do 
well to venerate that which has made us a nation. 
But let us beware of mere lip-service, and take care 
that in practice we submit to ' and observe it. We 
are too ready to infringe both the letter and the spirit 
of the constitution in the excitement of party con- 



24 O K A T I O N . 

tests. Nothing can be more fatal, for within its 
sacred Uniits hes the well-being of our political sys- 
tem. 

Within those limits, too, lies the defeated principle 
in the great conflict between nationality and sepa- 
ratism. In the last decisive struggle the rights of 
States were sorely wounded. It could not have been 
otherwise, when their most zealous advocates used 
them as the sword and shield of slavery, and dashed 
them against the strong rock of national existence. 
The injury then suffered by the rights of States is 
one of the gravest results of the war, simply from its 
effects upon our minds and habits of thought. We 
have been insensibly led to regard a violation of 
State rights with indifference, if not with approval. 
The principle of States' rights is as vital and essential 
as the national principle itself. If the former, carried 
to extremes, means anarchy, the latter, carried to 
like extremes, means centralization and despotism. 
So long as we have the strong barrier of the States, 
we are safe from usurpation and plebiscites. Here 
in the I^orth, States' rights have naturally become 
words of evil significance, and are even used to revile 
political opponents. This is not only bad in itself, 
but it involves an amount of historical hypocrisy 
which is intolerable. The most meagre outline of our 
history suffices to show unmistakably that the sepa- 



JULY 4, 18 79. 25 

ratist principle has existed everywhere, and has, at 
some time, burst forth everywhere into dangerous 
activity. If this teaches nothing else, it should at 
least enforce the wholesome doctrines of consistency 
and charity. 

That separatism should have existed everywhere 
was not only natural but inevitable. The govern- 
ment of each State was old, familiar, and beloved 
Avhen the Union was formed. The State represented 
the past. With its existence were entwined all the 
memories and traditions which carried men back to 
the toils and suiferings of their hardy ancestors, who 
had made homes in the wilderness that their children 
might be free and receive a continent for their 
inheritance. The hearts of men were bound up in 
their States. The Federal government at first 
appealed only to their reason or their interest. To 
their States they turned as the objects of their first 
allegiance. This sentiment knew neither JSTorth nor 
South, East nor West. Nothing is more false than 
to associate the doctrine of States' rights with any 
particular part of the country, or exclusively with 
those States which last invoked its aid. I^othing 
is plainer than that the States and the party in 
power have always been strongly national, while 
the minority, call it by what party name you will, 
has as steadily gravitated toward States' rights. 



26 ORATION. 

There has never been a moment of pecuhar stress 
and bitterness when the truth of this has not been 
brought home Avith sharp distinctness. 

Washington and Adams and Hamilton were strong 
nationahsts, and vigorously supported a liberal con- 
struction of the Constitution. The opposition, led by 
Jefterson, resisted the central government, advocated 
strict construction, and leaned upon States' rights. 
But the wheel revolved, and Jefferson became Presi- 
dent. He retained in office all his old theories, but 
his practice was that of his predecessors. ISTo one 
ever pushed the national power further, or strained the 
Constitution more boldly, than Thomas Jefferson. 
The famous alien and sedition laws of the Federalists 
paled before the stringency and oppression of the 
enforcement act, which almost drove Massachusetts 
into rebellion. Both measures were said to be de- 
manded by national safety; both were the work of 
a national administration, and they were severally 
carried through by parties of diametrically opposite 
principles. On the other hand, the Federalists, once 
out of office and a hopeless minority, drifted into 
States' rights, and used them freely against the 
national government. The Union was never in 
greater peril than in 1814, when IS^ew England 
threatened secession unless the administration and' 
ruling party yielded to her demands. AVith charac- 



JULY 4, 1879. 27 

teristic caution, she stayed her uplifted liand and 
waited a little longer. The wisest and most tem- 
perate leaders among the Federalists put aside the 
more violent, in order to guide and check the sepa- 
ratist movement, and thus maintain a control which 
open opposition would have destroyed. But no one 
then doubted either the meaning or the danger of 
I*^ew England's attitude. If the blow had fallen, the 
Union would have been dashed in pieces, without 
hope of recovery. 

States' rights belong to no party and to no State. 
They are as universal as nationality; and that they 
are so is proof of their value. But they go much 
deeper than their name implies. They involve a 
principle as old as the race itself. This principle was 
born in the forests of Germany, is recorded in the 
pages of Tacitus, and came with the wild Teutonic 
tribes across the channel to Britain more than a 
thousand years ago. It is the great Anglo-Saxon 
principle of local self-government, and is the safe- 
guard of our liberties now, as it has ever been in the 
past. Without it there is no health in us. It should 
be more jealously watched than any other, because 
the tendency in large communities is always towards 
centralization. We see illustrations of this ten- 
dency every day, in the growing habit of both parties 
to judge every question according to its expediency. 



28 () HAT I ON. 

and not according to the constitutional principles, 
which they, as parties, are supposed to represent. 
There seems to be no desire anywhere to oppose a 
measure, simply and solely because it leans more 
toward centralization than is warranted by the Con- 
stitution. This tendency is lull of peril. Our gov- 
ernment is a system of checks and balances. Destroy 
one element, and the whole fabric falls. Irrationality 
is strong and safe. Our most important duty is to 
protect our local rights, wherever they exist, and feel 
as the colonies did when the Boston Port Bill passed, 
that the cause of one is the cause of all. 

Two lessons are clearly written on the pages which 
record the strife between the inborn love of locai 
independence and the broader spirit of nationality 
created by the Constitution. One is reverence for' 
the Constitution; the other, a careful maintenance of 
the principle of States' rights. 

Let us turn for a moment to the other great con- 
flict, which has gone on side by side with that 
between nationality and separatism. The opposing 
principles of aristocracy and democracy, of govern- 
ment by part, instead of government by all, of class- 
rule, in contradistinction to the rule of the whole 
people, have entered more deeply into our manners, 
habits, modes of thought, and daily lives than the 
purely political forces. The latter are better under- 



JULY 4, 18 79. 29 

stood and appreciated, but the former, silently and 
almost unnoticed, have striven to possess and retain 
every nerve and fibre of the social and political body. 
Incidentally the conflict between aristocracy and 
democracy became involved in that between nation- 
ality and separatism, and met its fate upon the same 
field; but its history and origin are, nevertheless, 
wholly independent. 

We are too apt to forget that an aristocracy of 
strong social and political influence existed in a 
greater or less degree in every one of the thirteen 
colonies when they threw oft' the yoke of the mother- 
country. In Virginia and the southern States there 
was a pure aristocracy in theory and in fact. It 
rested upon- the firm foundation of great landed 
estates, a tenantry of slaves, and broad class dis- 
tinctions. Government was wholly in the hands of 
this ruling class, and the Yirginian system continued 
to sway the South until the day of Lee's surrender. 
In Kew England, on the other hand, the political 
system was democratic, and modelled upon the 
church system of the early Puritans. Here, too^ 
however, there was an aristocracy from which our 
early leaders were chiefly taken ; but their power and 
influence rested only upon consent. They were per- 
mitted to guide and govern, deference was yielded to 
them, and ofiicial position freely given, but solely on 



30 ORATION. 

account of ancestral service to the State, of ability, 
wealth, or learning. Such an aristocracy may be an 
ideal one, but its tenure of power is precarious, and 
its supports are frail. The middle States contained 
both Virginian and New England elements. Great 
families, owning vast estates, dominated New York, 
but mainly by dexterous manag'ement of the masses; 
while, in Pennsylvania, the democratic principle had 
the advantage, and the aristocracy, from its own 
supineness, seems to have had less power even than 
in New England. 

This wide-spread, aristocratic element, which was 
so powerful a century ago, made itself deeply felt in 
all matters of government. We find in the early 
State constitutions ample provisions for the represen- 
tation of the upper classes, and for the restraint of 
democracy, as well as many and various limitations 
upon the suff'rage. The aristocratic principle came 
out strongly in the convention which framed the con- 
stitution of the United States. " We are too demo- 
cratic, and means must be found to check the spread 
and the action of democracy," was the cry of many 
members in that convention, including some men who 
soon after followed the Jeffersonian standard. The 
great party which carried the Constitution, organized 
and set in motion the government, held possession of 
it for twelve years, and nearly overthrew it in their 



JULY 4, 1879. 31 

last struggle for power, was an aristocratic party, and 
wished to bnild up and consolidate a ruling class. 

They aimed at the creation of an aristocratic 
republic, and a strong and energetic central gov- 
ernment. They shrank with undisguised horror 
from the idea of universal suffrage, and, embittered 
by the spectacle of the French revolution, regarded 
pure democracy as equivalent to anarchy, and, as of 
necessity, a government by the worst elements of 
society. They fought manfully to maintain and 
carry out their theory, and they failed. They were 
contending with an irresistible social and political 
force, and the accession of Jefferson not only marked 
their defeat, but accomplished a complete revolution 
in our theory of government. From that time the 
democratic principle was supreme. But customs die 
hard. Even after the vital principle is gone habits 
live on. The theory was established, but more than 
a quarter of a century elapsed before the practice 
was changed. There was still a ruling class from 
which the men to fill high office were for the most part 
selected. Birth, education, social position, wealth, 
and training still continued to be most important 
requisites for a statesman. At last the second revo- 
lution came, and practice was made to conform to 
theory. With the election of Andrew Jackson, 
qualities, inherited or acquired, which raised a man 



32 OEATION. 

above his fellows, and had been supposed to imply 
peculiar fituess for public life, were cast aside for- 
ever as tests for employment in the national service. 
Ability, proi)erty, training', reputation, were not only 
no longer required, they became positive disad- 
vantages. A "self-made" man, who had started with 
nothing, and worked his way up, despite ignorance 
and poverty, from the log-cabin in the backwoods, 
was considered to have better claims, solely on ac- 
count of his antecedents, than one who had been bred 
to the profession of state-craft, and had every oppor- 
tunity for improvement which wealth and care could 
give. The new practice, carried by the impulse of 
victory to extremes, was every whit as false as the 
old. It simply reversed the ancient order, and de- 
clared that favor should be extended to those who 
had formerly stood at a disadvantage. Class dis- 
crimination was as strong as ever, in a new form. 
But all class distinctions are foreign to the spirit of 
our political system, no matter what portion of society 
is the favored one. They are utterly alien to the 
theory of administration which was accepted and laid 
down at the outset as the guiding principle of our 
govei-nment, and in accordance with which the best 
men, and the best men only, were to administer public 
aflairs and be properly remunerated for their labor. 
This was a business theory, upon which our system 



JULY 4, 18 79. 33 

was founded, and it worked capitally until, as was 
said by Mr. Evarts, I believe, the corollary was added, 
that one man was just as good as another. It was 
this corollary which was swept into power with 
Andrew Jackson, and it was anything but a business 
"theory. It never obtained for a moment, in any walk 
of private life, where fitness has always continued 
to be the test of selection for places of trust and 
profit. In public affairs alone it was forced into 
practical operation. We are still reaping the results 
of this distortion of democratic principles. 

It would, however, be a mistake, to suppose that, 
because the national government had at last become 
purely democratic, class rule and aristocracy were 
therefore at an end. The Virginian system still 
prevailed in the South, and still held sway at Wash- 
ington. The aristocracy of Virginia had perceived 
at an early day that they could not gain supremacy 
without northern allies. These they obtained with 
great sagacity and perfect success. They could form 
no alliance with the northern leaders in the days of 
the Federalists, so they turned to the masses. The 
people of the JSTorthern States were altogether 
democratic, and had no real symj)athy with slave- 
holders and great landlords. But the Virginian 
system was impregnable at home, and the Virginian 
leaders stepped boldly forward as the friends of 



34 ORATION. 

humanity and equality, and as the advocates of doc- 
trines which, if applied to their own State, meant 
total destruction to the very system that gave them 
power. Under the cloak of democratic principles, 
Virginia divided the N^orth, and the curious spectacle 
was presented of the aristocratic portion of the 
country ranged on the side of democracy, while 
aristocracy made its stand and fought its last 
desperate fight under its true colors in the most 
thoroughly democratic States. 

The Virginian policy worked admirably. For 
twenty-four years Virginia retained the presidency. 
For thirty-five years more the South controlled the 
national government. Under the withering and de- 
basing influence of slavery the Virginian aristocracy 
rapidly degenerated. They ceased to be the class 
which had produced Washington and Marshall. 
Virginian aristocracy broadened into a southern aris- 
tocracy, and lost the qualities which had once made 
them so much more than mere slave-drivers and plan- 
tation lords. The aristocratic force remained, but its 
graces and virtues had departed, blighted by slavery 
and by the constant defence of what men in their 
hearts knew to be a great and crying iniquity. Still 
they held on, while violence and truculence usurped 
the place of courtesy and good-breeding, and drove 
out those other attributes which had once given 



JULY 4, 1879. 35 

the southern leadei's a high and acknowledged 
position. 

But other forces were at work, and the opposing 
systems met at last in battle. On the field of 
Gettysbui'g the democracy of Plymouth and the 
aristocracy of Jamestown came together in arms, 
and the pi'inciples of the Puritan triumphed once 
more over those of the Cavalier. As in the days of 
Charles I., aristocratic principles had allied them- 
selves with a bad cause, and met with the defeat 
which that cause merited. The last class govern- 
ment was utterly swept away. We are finally 
democratic throughout the length and breadth of 
the land. 

With the civil wai- the first era of our history 
closed. It is settled that we are to be one nation, 
and we have established a pure representative 
democracy. These results have been accomplished 
by tremendous sacrifices and exertions, and they 
bring with them a mighty responsibility. We have 
undertaken a gigantic task. We are making the 
greatest experiment in government ever attempted. 
We have built up an empire so great that, whether 
for evil or good, it is a chief factor in the affairs of 
civilized mankind and of the world. We have grad- 
ually evolved a political and social system which has, 
on the whole, produced a greater amount of human 



36 ORATION. 

happiness and well-being than any other. We have 
done more to raise the condition of the average man 
than any other nation. To us belongs the solemn 
duty of maintaining this system, and of making 
this experiment of a great representative democracy 
succeed. 

It is a momentous and difficailt task. We cannot 
escape it. We cannot retrace our steps. We must 
either maintain our system as it is, oi- plunge blindly 
forward. We have reached the last point of safe 
progress in government. We have conferred sover- 
eignty upon every man in the community, and, unless 
we include women and children, there is no possibil- 
ity of further expansion in this direction. The step 
from democracy is to socialism, and although social- 
ism is not an immediate danger in the United States, 
it here and there rears its ugly head and breathes 
its false spirit into our laws and party resolutions. 
It must be crushed out before it gathers strength; 
for socialism means anarchy, and anarchy can have 
but one result, the order of military despotism. 
Our position is difficult, and fraught with peril, but 
we have proved ourselves capable of great things, 
and we have no reason to falter. Yet, if we wish 
and mean to succeed, we must lay aside careless 
indifference as well as fear, and take seriously 
to heart some of the pregnant lessons of history. 



JULY 4, 1879. 37 

The great secret of the political success of our race 
lies in its conservatism, in its ability to reform and not 
destroy in order to create anew. We have adapted 
our forms of government to the changing necessities 
of the times, by clinging to the past until sure of the 
future, by holding fast the good and rejecting only 
the bad, and by sturdy contempt for inconsistencies, 
provided the system practically worked well. /^ 

But, in this countiy, by our youth, by our success, 
and by the marvellous changes we have wrought, we 
have been led to forget these principles. We have 
become too apt to concede that a change is worth 
trying, simply because it is a change. We ai-e too 
ready to admit that everything is open to argument, 
instead of adhering, in some measure, at least, to the 
practice of our ancestors, who believed that there 
were certain laws and institutions upon which all 
civilized society rested, that were not suscejDtible of 
discussion. Let us revert to the traditions of our 
race, and practise a httle more wholesome conserva- 
tism. A^o change should be made in our political 
system until it has been well considered and conclu- 
sively demonstrated that it is not a change for the 
worse. Progress is a fine word, but it is not neces- 
sarily a good thing. It may be' progress in evil as 
well as in good. It may be as bad as reaction, and 
much worse than standing still. 



38 ORATION. 

In another respect, which nearly aflfects the 
success of our great democratic experiment, we 
have departed from the maxims of our ances- 
tors and of the founders of the republic. N^o 
men were ever more skilled than they in the 
difficult art of free government, and they knew 
well that the sphere of legislation was not bound- 
less. They believed that 'legislation could assist 
human effort by giving security to all, and there- 
by extending the best opportunities for great 
achievements. But they taught the doctrine that 
the individual man should rely upon himself, and not 
upon his government, for well-being and success. 
They were firmly convinced that legislation could not 
be a panacea for every ill that flesh is heir to; that it 
could not prevent human passion and error, and theii- 
legitimate results, or free men from misfortune and 
from the consequences of their own folly and mis- 
takes. The fathers of our system had learned by 
bitter experience that legislation should be restricted 
to the very well defined field where effective action is 
possible, should leave room for every man to exei-t 
his talents, and, above all things, should not be 
meddling and paternal. This was sound, wise doc- 
trine. But there is now a growing tendency to 
invoke legislation to cure the results of our own 
blunders; to regai'd it as a universal remedy for 



JULY 4, 1879. 39 

every mishap, and to cany it out of its proper sphere 
and force it to do work which belongs to the indi- 
vidual man. Such helpless leaning uj3on legislation 
is false in theory, dangerous in practice, thoroughly 
unmanly, and as peculiarly un-American as anything 
can jjossibly be. It is diametrically opposed to the 
independent, self-reliant spii-it which has made 
America what she is. Strong, masculine races have 
no need of paternal legislation. It is their worst 
enemy. 

But there is one danger to our democracy which 
far surpasses all others in gravity and importance. 
When the government was founded, although there 
was a well-defined aristocracy, the social and eco- 
nomical conditions wei"e much more favorable than at 
present to the successful establishment and working 
of a pure democracy. Great fortunes were rare, and 
extreme poverty was almost unknown. Men stood, 
as a rule, pretty nearly upon an equality in the mat- 
ter of property and physical well-being. Agriculture 
and trade were the only pursuits of the community. 
There were no great centres of population. The 
largest cities were hardly moi-e than small towns. 
Huge masses of capital were not collected for the 
prosecution of vast enterprises. Life was simple, and 
class distinctions rankled in no man's breast, despite 
the power and position of the aristocracy. 



40 ORATION. 

As the years have rolled on we have become a 
pure democracy, and, meantime, all the social and 
economical conditions have radically changed. Im- 
mense fortunes are no longer rare, and desperate 
poverty is only too common. Great corporations, 
controlling vast amounts of capital, have come into 
existence. Great cities have grown up, and compli- 
cated industries have spread, or are spreading, over 
the whole country. From a small society, where 
material equality reigned, simple in its tastes, habits 
and pursuits, we have become a great nation, with all 
the intricate and delicate machinery of a high and 
luxurious civilization, filled with glaring inequalities 
of condition. 

In this stat'^ of affairs there is one thing absolutely 
fatal to the continuance of democratic government, 
and that is, strife between classes. Undei- the old 
and equal conditions this was not to be feared. 
J^early everybody had a stake in the peaceable ex- 
istence of the country and in the continued stability 
of the government. All men knew, with the keen 
instinct of those who have something to lose, the 
ruin which lurked in social disorder and in any in- 
vasion of the rights of property. The population 
then was also largely rural and widely scattered, and 
such inequalities as there were did not come home to 
men by daily and unavoidable contact. Now, enor- 



JULY 4, 1879. 41 

mous and defenceless wealth dwells side by side with 
hopeless poverty. In the progress of our wonderful 
development we have brought together a great deal 
of very inflammable material. Let us. see to it that 
it is not ignited, as it might easily be if one class 
is aroused against another. 

Here is the terrible foe of our system. Here is 
the enemy which, once let loose, will bring our fair 
experiment crashing in ruins about our heads. 
Scrupulous protection of private rights and private 
property has been the great secret of our success 
and the chief glory of our popular government. 
This essential principle can be destroyed not 
only by force, which is little to be feared, but 
quite as effectually, although more insidiously, 
under forms of law. In either case the meaning is 
the same. It is one part of society attacking the 
other, and if this war between classes comes the 
present scheme is ruined. It begins with statutes 
and constitutions, and ends with the bayonet and 
the barricade. While political divisions run up and 
down, we are safe; but, when they begin to run 
across societv, the end is not far distant. 

To the diminution, and, if possible, to the removal, 
of this danger, which can now be easily dealt with, 
our best efforts should be directed. A brand should 
be set upon the man who strives to stir up war 



42 ORATION. 

between classes and rouse the bitterness which 
inequality of condition is capable of producing. 
Such a man is the deadly enemy of our country. 
He is the foe of humanity. More hateful, and quite 
as dangerous as the open stimulator of class hatreds 
is he who puts forward and defends communistic 
and socialistic laws or theories, either in the halls 
of the Legislature, or upon the platform, for the 
sake of catching votes. For selfish ends the hunter 
for votes advocates theories which he knows to be 
false, and which, defeated or victorious, will leave 
those whom he deludes more wretched than before. 
But, while we visit with indignation the j^romoters 
of social discord, let us look to it that we have no 
cause for self-reproach. It ought to be our first care 
that the laboring classes shall have no just cause of 
complaint, but shall have reason to believe that peace 
and order can alone afford them the oppoi'tunity of 
permanently bettering their fortunes. Anything 
which tends to shake this belief or to impair theii- 
confidence in their political system is an injury of 
the severest kind to the cause of good government. 
We must discourage strenuously the notion that 
legislation is all-powerful. We must to this end 
desist from framing impossible statutes devised to 
alter nature and nature's laws. We must recognize 
the limits of legislation, and encourage individual 



JULY 4, 18 79. 43 

independence. The great truth must be brought 
home to every man, that being governed too much 
is one of the greatest of all possible curses, stifling a 
vigorous national life at its very source. Our one 
aim should be to reduce and simplify legislation to 
the last point, and insist upon a clear responsibility 
and blazing publicity in every department of the 
people's sei-vice. Above all, let us strive to make 
inequality a difference of degree, and not of kind; 
a difi'erence between much and little, and not that 
between something and nothing. Evei-y man should 
be helped so far as possible to have a stake in the 
country. Every form of saving should be en- 
couraged and protected, and laws hindering the easy 
acquisition of houses and lands should be swept 
from the statute-book. The savings and the homes 
of the laboring classes are the most priceless posses- 
sion of the republic. They are pledges of honorable 
and secure existence, and the palladium against 
revolution; for property teaches every man the love 
of ordered liberty. Let our government be thoroughly' 
what it pretends to be, — a government of the peoj^le 
and in their interest, and not the prey of demagogues 
and adventurers, nor the vehicle of fanatical schemes 
to regenerate society. Let it be simply the guardian 
of individual liberty and individual rights. There is 
nothing ideal in all this. It merely means a strict 



44 (ORATION. 

adherence to the principles of our forefathers and of 
our race. We must drop the shams and fine lan- 
guage and the tendency to mistake names for things, 
of which we ai-e growing too fond. We must return 
to our old habit of calling a spade a spade, and not 
an agricultural implement foi- the trituration of the 
soil. We must make war upon all forms of cant and 
sham in public men. We must cast aside the false 
sentimentality which reasons from what ought to be, 
and confine ourselves to what is. By dealing with 
things as they are, we may make them what they 
ought to be. In short, let us, one and all, cultivate 
honestlv in word and deed, and make it our first 
political object to bind up the interests and the 
welfare of the great laboring classes indissolubly 
with the continued stability of State and government. 
When that is done, our democracy will be safe, and 
we shall have no cause to fear a downw^ard step. 

Such are some of the doctrines and some of the 
lessons Avhich come most forcibly to mind upon our 
national birthday. They are "simple, ancient, true," 
and as trite as the axioms of morality. Great his- 
torical principles of politics and government are, like 
great poems, fiimiliar to all mankind. If they were 
not so, they would be neither great nor enduring. 
But they are also like the Egyptian Queen: — 

Age f.iinuit witluT tlieui, 

Nor custom stale tlieiv infinite variety. 



cy' 



OKATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



'k\\ Sottittj} anii iilipns nf J0SI011, 



ON THE 



ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLA- 
RATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 



JULY 4, 1879. 



BY 



HENRY CABOT LODGE 




Boston: 

PRINTED BY ORDER OE THE ( IIY (OlXdL 

M DCC C LXX IX . 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



■!;',» 



011 782 940 6 



I mil mil 




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